TMJ

I started not feeling well some time over the weekend. My head was so stopped up and my right ear specifically was almost completely stopped up. I was feeling quite off balance and just weird. I felt sure that I had either an ear infection or a sinus infection. One of my friends offered to watch the girls if I wanted to go to the doctor so I took her up on the offer and made an appointment for that afternoon. He examined everything and decided that my problem was TMJ. He has referred me to an oral surgeon. I thought it was kind of weird that my throat wasn't hurting and my nose wasn't really stopped up-symptoms I thought I'd have with a sinus infection.

He said my ears looked good and my sinus areas didn't really hurt when he pressed on them. He had me open & close my mouth a couple of times. He said, "That just hurts!" I told him I'm pretty used to it. My jaw has popped for as long as I can remember. He said it sounded like someone was grinding corn. I'm not sure what that really sounds like! He asked me who my dentist was and he said general dentists don't usually want to do anything about it since it's really a joint issue and not a teeth issue. I told him that I have talked to my dentist about it because last year I think I popped it out of socket and then back in. I just remember this horrible pain and I think a few minutes later it happened again and then for a few days I couldn't really bite down all the way on the right side. It was like I had to use my hand to manually move my jaw into position so I could bite down. It lasted a few days and I had a dentist appointment about a week later.

My dentist had basically told me there wasn't much they could do and it wasn't covered by insurance, etc. My general doctor told me this week that the guys he's sending me to know what they're doing when it comes to this and that I had to have something done. He told me to take 2 Advil 3 times and day and gave me a pain prescription. Honestly, I think I've only taken the pain pills twice because the pain was never too bad-it was more discomfort from having one ear stopped up! I have taken the Advil more because he said it would help with the anti-inflammatory issue that was stopping up the ear. It is really much better now so I'm anxious to see the oral surgeon next week to see if he thinks it's as bad as the other doctor seemed to think. It really doesn't usually bother me except for the 1 incident last year and then this week with my ear. Chris did look up the surgeon and he IS on our insurance plan so that's good. I'm not sure to what extent his services are covered but at least his name is listed as a provider so the initial visit should be covered!

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I got to sit outside with some of the kids at lunch Wednesday like Mrs. Stauffer had proposed. She chose 7 students and it was really fun. It was such a different atmosphere from the classroom. The kids were goofy-as 1st graders will be-I really enjoyed it!

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Last night, we went to Bruster's for ice cream. Gracie had a "free cone" coupon from her Book It reading and it was a nice night. Katie got a free "baby cone" too because of her size (yippee!). She was so cute eating it and she said-so enthusiastically, "I love it!" Gracie said, "Thank you, Mommy!" and Katie said, "Thank you Daddy!" I love it when they say thank you without having to be prompted.

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Gracie didn't have school today because of a Teacher Workday. I had said I would make a breakfast casserole for the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast one of the PTA ladies was coordinating. Chris agreed to take it up there around 7:30 on his way to work. Well, I got up around 6:00 and got it put together. I got back in bed around 7:00 and told Chris he would need to take it out of the oven. When I got up later and looked at the one in the kitchen-this is after he'd taken 1 to school-(I'd made 2) I was horrified! It was so ugly!!!!!!!!! It didn't taste that good either! I am soooo embarrassed!!!!!! Chris took the other one to the school and I'm only hoping no one really knew I made it! He gave it to the secretary who took it to the room where the breakfast would be. I just know the lady who coordinated the breakfast is going to know I made it because I'm sure she was mentally checking off all the things people had said they would bring and she'd suggested I do a hashbrown casserole-which is what I attempted to do. I'm not sure what I did wrong but it truly looked horrible! It tasted decent but looked horrible! I'm not sure if I should apologize to her or just leave it alone and hope she doesn't realize I made it!

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Posting these pictures will somewhat be telling on myself but yesterday Gracie & I did quite an overhaul on her bedroom. Cleaning & organizing. *Whew* What a mess. (this is part of what I swept up!)The poor girl doesn't really have any hope of being organized with Chris & I as her parents. She keeps any & every little toy or trinket that she ever gets. She wants to tape up everything she draws or writes. I love seeing her little "art galleries" around the house, but after awhile I find it's time to de-clutter them a bit. I took down quite a few things yesterday (I kept many of them) and already today she has put 3 new things up! I really do try to teach my girls how to keep the house neat and I try to model it. I just have to admit that being a good housekeeper is not my greatest talent. Please-no lecturing. I try.

Once I start in Gracie's room, it's really hard to stop until I'm finished. I did take some breaks but ended up finishing before we went to bed. I love how it looks now-all nice & neat. (nice & neat dresser-I do have the drawer pull for that bottom drawer) (her bed after we piled stuff on top of it so I could move furniture and sweep!)(she made her bed this morning and I think she did a great job! I had made it right before she went to bed last night so she must have slept very still!) If only it could stay that way. I have encouraged her to do a little each day so it doesn't get so bad. We'll see how this works out! She did spend quite a bit time today working at her table(her table piled high with stuff so I could move furniture & sweep) (much better! we put her dress up box under the table so it's out of the way-she can pull it out when she wants it) and I think she really liked everything being so clean. The bookcase & closet are the worst! I can spend forever working on those 2 areas. I love books & reading-as does Gracie-so books are aplenty!(only a little glimpse into trying to organize her books-The Kissing Hand is one of my FAVORITES!) (I love an organized bookcase-mostly chapter books on top, mostly hardbacks next then paperbacks) She did help me with the organizing & cleaning. She got to approve some of the things I threw away----and I threw some things away "on the sly." I filled a garbage bag quite full of "stuff!" (horse stuff-bigger horses are in the closet)

(closet-I'm not showing the inside-even after organizing it still doesn't look great!)

Now I need to work on Katie's room!

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Part of what Gracie did today was turn an empty box into a boat! She named it "The Family Ship" and upon my prompting, added people & a seagull to her ship and wrote a little story about it. Isn't the imagination of kids amazing?!?!